“14 years ago, there were only 6 staff members in Wang Jing & GH Law Firm, and now the number has boosted to 160. At first, we did not have many clients, but now we have hundreds of them. We are developing and making progress, and we expect more excellent lawyers to join us.” -Yao Changhui, Senior Consultant, Wang Jing & GH Law Firm
Implement Integrated Management of Human Resources
Smooth Promotion Channels within the Firm
Currently, Wang Jing & GH’s integrated management covers six parts, namely, logo integration, training integration, publicity integration, human resources integration, and legal service quality integration.
The high quality of legal services is our top goal. But how to ensure the high quality of legal services? The crux of this question lies with human resources. Only when everyone has a unified value and the same standard, can we ensure the excellent quality of the Firm’s legal services.
1. Recruit Talents through Written Test, Interview and Moot Court
The Secretarial Team Also Has a Detailed Work Division.
Wang Jing & GH has an integrated human resource management system, where talents are all recruited by the COO. Outstanding graduates from famous universities are introduced into the Firm based on a unified standard.
The recruitment process mainly consists of three parts, that is the written test, the interview, and the moot court. Moot court, an innovative approach to recruit, improves the recruitment rate of high-quality talents to a large extent.
New lawyers will receive unified basic skills training in the Firm’s Faculty of Lawyers for 6 months after joining the Firm. The training covers all aspects like evidence preparation, court appearance, case information retrieval, etc. And then, they will be assigned to different practice groups and receive further specialized training under the guidance of partners.
In addition to the standardized recruitment of legal talents, the Firm also attaches great importance to the recruitment and development of the supporting staff.
The Firm has made a detailed division of work for its secretarial team, including partners’ secretaries, group secretaries, legal secretaries, and legal assistants.
“I hope that through the clear division and training of supporting staff, our lawyers can focus only on the most professional part of the case, and other procedural matters can be assisted by secretaries, so that the value and efficiency of each person can be maximized and a reasonable resource allocation can be formed within every time unit.” Mr. Huang Shan said.
2. Set Up Business Enhancement and Talent Cultivation Committee
“Five-Year to be Partner Program” Specially Tailored for Young Lawyers
The premise of any law firm’s success is the success of its staff.
Therefore, at Wang Jing & GH there are five levels of lawyers and trainees, ranging from first-year lawyers to senior lawyers, and everyone has an opportunity for promotion each year.
On March 31, 2022, the Firm established the Business Enhancement and Talent Cultivation Committee.
“The Committee has been promoting the construction of ‘Enlightenment Project’, ‘Foundation-building Project’, ‘Pioneer Project’, ‘Pilot Project’ and ‘Gathering Force Project’ to fill in the shortcomings and strengthen the weaknesses, further enhance professional competence, and better transform the Firm’s talent advantage into a powerful force to lead and promote the development of the Firm.” Ms. Cai Ziying, Executive Director of the Business Enhancement and Talent Cultivation Committee of the Firm said.
(1) Enlightenment Project
The Enlightenment Project is one targeted at college students, and is also called “Future Lawyers” Student Training Plan. It is implemented through giving campus lectures, hosting legal skills competitions and the Firm’s Open Day so as to make talent reserve for the Firm’s future need.
(2) Foundation-building Project
The “Young Lawyers” Seminar Advancement Program, a Foundation-building Project for junior lawyers, aims to strengthen the professional foundation and empower young lawyers through the development of office skills, business abilities and professional knowledge.
The GateWay Training Camp, which has been held for 17 sessions, is one of the advanced training programs of “Foundation-building Project” created by the Firm to train young lawyers.
Experts, scholars and senior lawyers from both inside and outside the Firm are invited to share and train on culture, values, market, professional knowledge, business etiquette and work skills to help young lawyers grow quickly.
(3) Pioneer Project
The “Elite Lawyers” Project, a pioneer project for the lead lawyers, senior lawyers and consultants, aims to broaden the knowledge of the elite lawyers through “inviting in” and “going out”, i.e. through inviting external professionals to conduct business exchanges at the Firm and encouraging the Firm’s elite lawyers to participate in external training courses, so as to provide reserve for management personnel for the development of the Firm.
(4) Pilot Project
The “Future Managers” Leadership Development Program, a pilot project for newly promoted partners, provides additional training courses on client maintenance and development and team management to encourage young partners to pay more attention to the development of the legal industry and the Firm, and to ensure the right direction and long-term development of the Firm’s business.
(5) Gathering Force Project
The “Talent 1+1” Inter-Department and Inter-Firm Cohesion Project aims at enhancing inter-departmental and inter-firm cohesion. On the one hand, the project shares data through integrating and dynamically updating the CVs of and cases handled by lawyers of each practice group, as well as team legal service products, legal document templates and legal service proposals. On the other hand, the Gathering Force Project promotes cooperation between Wang Jing & GH and other firms in areas including talent cultivation, brand building, culture building, product research and development, informatization construction, market development, business cooperation, etc.
In addition, the Firm has formulated a “Five-Year Partnership Plan” for young lawyers, requiring them to grow quickly and strive to become partners of the Firm within five years.
“At Wang Jing & GH Law Firm, what I have gained is not an organization on my lawyer’s license, but the Firm’s help and trust in the growth of young lawyers.” Senior partner Feng Qingqing said.
Apart from this, offering law firm members adequate benefits is the key approach to retain talents. In addition to the annual health checks for the staff, cultural and sporting activities such as monthly birthday parties, badminton tournaments, hiking and yoga are held regularly.
“I hope Wang Jing & GH is a law firm where everyone here feels a sense of happiness, shares the same idea and everybody’s worth can be realized; everybody can do something he or she likes, and reap a sense of accomplishment and happiness, so that he or she can provide clients with high quality legal service.” Mr. Huang Shan said.
Technology Empowers Efficiency
Full Launch of Alpha
Wang Jing & GH always adheres to corporate management and seeks to improve work quality and efficiency by using technologies, from the initial use of database and OA system, to the full launch of Alpha. It used to take the partners 2 hours to write a legal document, but now it only takes half an hour. What’s more, the number of assistants and time can be limited to improve efficiency and save costs.
The most important thing for a law firm is experience and knowledge, which is also the greatest asset of a law firm. Through Alpha, Wang Jing & GH carries out knowledge management, especially the productization of many standardized legal services, which helps the Firm to ensure the service quality of each team or each lawyer.
Besides, the CRM client management system, which was launched in 2019, solves the problem of sharing, developing and maintaining client resources of the Firm, helps it comprehensively understand the classification, behavior, satisfaction, needs and development trend of clients, etc., and realizes refined and informative management, so that the Firm can better provide clients with all-round legal services using the resources of the whole firm and further improve clients’ satisfaction with legal services.
In 2022, Wang Jing & GH even launched its ERP financial management system, which enables partners to check the profit and loss of the year at any time, as well as important financial indicators such as lawyers’ hourly rates, client value and partner profitability, helping partners to better analyze their business, manage their teams and expand the market.
From Guangzhou to Shenzhen
A Milestone on the Way Forward
With the support of the Belt and Road Economic Zone and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area policies, Shenzhen’s financial, internet and foreign-related legal services markets coincide with the Firm’s focus on urban renewal, internet and digital economy, and foreign-related legal services.
In July 2021, the Shenzhen office of Wang Jing & GH Law Firm, located in Shenzhen Bay Diamond Tower, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, was formally opened.
Wang Jing & GH’s expansion from Guangzhou to Shenzhen is not only a legacy of a city, but also a new journey of strategic significance and a milestone on the Firm’s way forward.
“Our choice of Shenzhen as the second office will surely be an important stroke in the history of the Firm’s development. Wang Jing & GH will continue to adhere to the integrated management model and its values ‘Professionalism, Efficiency, Teamwork Spirit, Win-Win Cooperation’, start a firm step forward on its journey of sailing on the Bay Area and toward realizing its dream of becoming a first tier foreign-related civil and commercial legal service platform.” said Jeff Yang, senior partner of the Firm’s Internet and Digital Economy Group and Executive Director of the Firm’s Shenzhen Office.
The December of 2021 witnessed the Firm expanding its office premises from a single floor on the 14th floor to two floors including a further full floor on the 17th floor of the Central Tower, a Grade-A office building in Guangzhou’s central business district.
With the expansion of 1,700 square meters of office space, the Firm enjoys the Haixin Bridge from a short distance and the Guangzhou Tower from afar. You can listen to the waves and watch the clouds in the morning as well as pick the stars and the moon at night. Taking the opportunity of this upgrade, Starbucks moves into the office. Today, the office space of the Firm in Guangzhou has reached more than 3,800 square meters, overlooking the first line of the river every day in the core area of the Zhujiang New Town.
From the Qinjian Building in 2008 to today’s Central Tower, Wang Jing & GH has grown through 14 years of accumulation, and is becoming stronger and stronger along with the rise of the Greater Bay Area, relying on craftsmanship and inheritance, professional and high-quality legal services and an integrated management model.
